I believe an introduction is in order. Hi! I’m Isaac, also known around the Crunchyroll forums and various other places around the internet as iblessall, and I’m here to introduce a brand-new addition to the Crunchyroll News features—a weekly column called Aniwords, written by none other than myself. 

Although this column is the first of its kind and of my own conception, this isn’t the only experience I have with writing about anime. Since February of 2014 I’ve been running my own anime blog, Mage in a Barrel, and I’ve also published a few guest posts right here on Crunchyroll (most recently, a speculative piece on Akame ga Kill’s thematic leanings). I graduated from college with a degree in creative writing, as well as minors in communication and film studies, so I try to bring a wide range of interests and approaches to my writing on anime. It's actually kind of a compulsive thing at this point—I can't watch anime and not write about it... 

But that’s enough about me—let’s talk about Aniwords and what you can expect to see every week in the column. In my time wandering about the internet anime fandom, I’ve come to realize that you hear a whole lot of different opinions on anime in a day, whether that be on a forum, Twitter, or talking about it with friends elsewhere. With that in mind, I wanted to structure the column in such a way that would give those of your reading the column something to think about and something to talk about each week. In other words, I'm hoping the column becomes something more than a piece you just read each week and forget about. I want it to stimulate discussion, sharing of opinions, and (if we're lucky), some opportunities to think about things in new ways. 

What’s this actually going to look like? Well, each week I’ll get us started with a question or thought on a given topic. If you've seen PBS Idea Channel's videos on YouTube, that's the sort of thing I'd like to try to achieve: taking an idea, a show, an idea about a show, whatever, and expanding on it to entertain, inform, and spark your thoughts. As I said above, I have a wide-range of interests that I bring to talking about anime, so hopefully that helps keep things fresh each week. The Akame ga Kill piece I link above is actually a great example of the sort of thing I’m hoping to do in the column. Some of the pieces might be more serious. Some of them might be sillier. Some might look at entire shows, others might simply tackle a moment or scene from a single episode. I’m not going spoil all of the column ideas I've already brainstormed (a bunch of them are probably terrible anyways), but instead of giving you nothing at all, here's a teaser from a potential future post for you to muse on until the column proper kicks off officially next week:  

"Do Manga Endings Have to Ruin a Show?

We've all had it happen to us. You're marathoning a show over the weekend and you actually really like it. It's got everything you wanted: great characters, an engaging story, good-looking animation. And then...it just ends. You go looking, desperately searching for a season two that's nowhere to be found. You check My Anime List and find out...the manga is ongoing, and has been for 4 years after the anime ended. It's the worst possible scenario because, deep down, you know:

There will never be a season two. 

And, worst of all, the anime ended with an arc that wasn't even close to finishing the overarching plot. "And their fight continues..." So, you're left with a decision to make as you think about how you're going to rate the show. Do you ignore the fact that the ending didn't wrap up anything, really? Or do you pan the show for failing to offer any sort of satisfying resolution?" 

Hmm, yes. Deep questions. I'll leave you to ponder the answers until next week, but I hope it gives you an inkling about what Aniwords is going to be like. If you're hyped to read more, let me know in the comments! If you think this is absolutely the worst idea ever, I guess you can let me know that, too...although I'd be pretty sad to hear it. And, if you happen to have some ideas of a topic you’d like me to cover, shoot me a PM and if I think I can do it, I’ll put it on my list! 

Aniwords will run every Tuesday at 5:05 PM Pacific time! See you back here next week!

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Isaac eases his compulsive need to write about anime on his blog, Mage in a Barrel. He also contributes to Otaku Review and hangs out on Tumblr. You can follow him on Twitter at @iblessall or on Facebook.